by Rebecca Pond
She wondered what was hidden behind the floor length curtains along the wall. She got up off the sofa and went over and pulled one side of the fabric back. The sight that confronted her was indescribable. She stepped between the curtain and the window and put her hands up to the glass wall that looked out into the far reaches of space. To her left she could see a sliver of the moon, but it was what she saw further out that fascinated her. The darkness was filled with thousands of tiny points of light that flickered and blinked at her. A few white streaks crossed the blackness that she was able to follow with her eyes for quite a distance. Her eyes turned towards the right where she saw the outer shell of the ship. Smaller flying ships could be seen coming and going into a large open area inside the ship that she thought to be a docking bay. Bright flashing lights came from this tunnel, and she spent an unknown amount of time watching the ships move in and out.
Suddenly the curtain was whipped aside from behind her. In her shock of the sudden movement behind her, she turned to look at Brylon as he stood there with a relieved look on his face. Did he actually think that she was gone?
“I need to go check on a few things in the engine room. Will you be alright without me for a while?”
Facing the window again she said, “I have been alone most of my life, so a few more minutes will make no difference.”
He caught her reflection in the glass of the window, watching as the tears that were rolling down her cheeks, “I shouldn’t be too long. If you want to go to bed, the bedroom is right through the door next to the entry way.”
“Sure, whatever,” was her short reply.
She listened for the sound of door sliding shut before she came out from behind the curtain. She was all alone, just the way she liked it. Taking a deep calming breath she walked to the kitchen to see if there was something to eat. She had been hungry when Brylon had offered to fix something to eat, but she was determined not to take anything from him.
This was the strangest kitchen she had ever seen. Everything was built into the walls to maximize the space. The kitchen formed a U-shape that had a small bar that jutted out on one side. She began to open and close drawers and doors of the cabinets to find something to eat or drink. Finally she found what must have been a refrigerator, because when she opened it she felt the cold air escape. Inside were neatly aligned containers of varying sizes containing what she guessed was food, and several glass bottles that contained a bright green liquid, which her thought was that it was some kind of lizard blood. Towards the back there was a bottle that had a pink liquid inside of it. She grabbed it and it appeared to have already been opened. She twisted the lid off the bottle and took a sniff. It smelled like lemons and alcohol. Shrugging her shoulders, she tipped the bottle and took a swig.
The first thing she noticed was the burning sensation in her nose. It felt like she was about to shoot fire out of her nose. She swallowed the burning liquid then took a deep breath, and when she did the burning sensation was much worse. She coughed to try to get the liquid to either move down her throat or back out her mouth. Her eyes watered as the burn slowly faded away and settled into the pit of her stomach which was empty because she hadn’t eaten in over two days.
“Holy crap, that’s some strong stuff!” She took a much smaller sip this time. The pink liquid actually had a good flavor. It was just the burning sensation afterwards that got to her. She continued to search through the refrigerator for food to eat. She pulled open a drawer that contained a square wrapped up in something that looked like a cheese cloth. Taking it out the drawer, she opened up the wrapping then smelled it. It smelled pretty good to her so she broke off a piece of the creamy stuff and chewed it up. It was soft and light blue and had a creamy texture.
“Oh my God, that is so good! I have no idea what it is, but I am going to eat this.” She shut the door of the refrigerator with her foot since her hands were full with the food she was holding. She went back to her spot behind the curtain and put down her dinner, but before she sat down on the floor she grabbed one of the cushions that were on the sofa. Positioning herself to where she could see docking bay, she laid on the floor drinking her pick alcohol and eating whatever the creamy light blue stuff was.
She racked her brain for a way to get off the ship. There had to be some kind of a way to get to one of those small ships and drive it back to earth. It couldn’t be too complicated to fly one since these guys seemed to be so technologically advanced. First though, she would need to be able to sneak out of Brylon’s rooms with no one seeing her. She was quite confident that she could manage at least that task because she became an expert at running away when she was in foster care. One time she ran away and was gone for a week before the social services finally caught up with her, it was a week of pure freedom.
Now she was facing a completely different scenario, being so far away from home, but she had to at least try. She wouldn’t be able to live with herself if she didn’t at least take a chance. What did she have to lose anyway? Her only other option was living her life with an alien on a different planet? She had nothing to lose.
She had no idea how long she laid there watching the ships come and go, but after a while her eyes got very heavy. She fought to keep them open because she really found the view of that the window had to offer very soothing. However, it soon became too much of an effort to resist and she let her eyes drift close.
Brylon returned to his quarters much later than he had originally planned. When he left Emma a few hours ago, he was only planning to being gone for about an hour. But, once he arrived at the engine room, someone had informed him that one of the air systems was not functioning properly. If the problem was serious enough, part of the ship would have to be sealed off until the repair was made. Luckily, after spending the majority of the time looking for the cause of the problem, it turned out to be an easy fix. One of the wires in the outtake circuit had worked itself loose and just needed to be soldered back in position.
Once he returned to his quarters, he quickly glanced around to see if Emma was still awake. Not seeing her anywhere, he went into to the bedroom and came to a dead stop. The bed was just how he left it. Where the hell was she? Did she go through with her threat and decide to find a way back down to her planet? He was starting to become frantic. Anything could happen to a female on ship filled with unmated warriors, not to mention, the several other species that lived and worked on the mother ship at present. Could he trust any of them not to touch her if she was found outside his quarters?
He walked back into the living room, and looked for anything that was different. Everything appeared to be in order at his first glance, but then he noticed that one of the large cushions from the sofa was missing. Then it hit him, when he left earlier she had been behind the curtains looking out the window. Could she possibly still be there? He went to the curtains, and pulled them back to find what he was looking for. Except this time, she was asleep on the floor. He squatted down next to her body to look at her sleeping. Lying next to her was an empty bottle which he immediately realized was his foa, and an empty cheese wrap with a few crumbs of larma remaining. Of all things she would try for the first time, foa was not a drink to be taken lightly. It was made by the fermentation of nimo beans for months, and then the liquid was strained out and flavor added to make it palatable. Nimo beans were nasty to eat on their own, but when made into an alcoholic beverage, they became a much sought after drink. Emma obviously seemed to like it since the bottle was empty and she was knocked out flat on her back.
He sat where he was for a bit and just watched her as she slept. He watched as her chest would rise and fall with each breath. One of her hands was thrown out to the side while the other rested on her chest. She had taken her hair out of the restraining bond so that it was fanned out on the cushion. Her long dark eyelashes rested gently against the skin above her cheeks and her lips were slightly parted. He noticed that a piece of her hair was caught in the corner of her lips, and without thinking he reached
out a finger to her cheek to brush the hair away. She moved her head slightly at the feel of his touch, but otherwise remained sleeping. He couldn’t just leave her on the floor, so he scooped her up into his arms and brought her into the bedroom.
“Come on my little mate. It’s time to go to bed. We have both had a long day,” he said to her as she slept. He carefully stood up with her in his arms. She was so small compared to him. How could a creature be so small and have such an effect on him? He wanted nothing at this moment then to lie her on the bed, strip her naked then make love to her. He wanted to sink himself into her depths and hear her cry out his name. He wanted to take her again and again until she finally admitted that she was his forever.
Placing her on the bed, he maneuvered the covers down from underneath her. She let out a soft moan as he lifted her legs to place them under the covers then pulled the blankets up over her. She rolled onto her side, placing a hand under her cheek then let out one last sigh before she settled down into a deep, deep sleep.
He was taking all of this in as he stood there watching her sleep. He could stand there all night just looking at her. He never dreamed that he would have such a beautiful mate. His hopes and the hopes of all of Therons, had been crushed when the Drylons had attacked their planet and killed or captured most of their females. For ten years now, their race had suffered at the hands of the Drylons. Finding Earth was the miracle that they had been waiting for. These females were Theron’s hope for continuing their race. Zane had made sure that he was absolutely positive that the females had compatible DNA to their own and would be able to carry their offspring, so it didn’t take them long to start scouting for the females once they had gotten the agreement from their fellow people. They had scouted day and night for the sixteen females that they were able to secure and bring on board the ship. Sixteen lucky warriors would have mates by the end of tonight. Sixteen couples would start the rebuilding of a great race. No one would ever take their females away from them again. He would die before he let anything happen to this woman that was lying in their bed.
He undressed as he went to the other side of the bed then climbed in. He flipped to his side facing Emma and wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her towards him so that her backside was nestled tightly against his body. It felt so good having someone in the big bed with him, but now he had to work on making her his.
****
Emma eased her eyes open the next morning and winced in pain when the lights in the room made her head pound as if someone hit her in the head with a sledgehammer. She rolled over and buried her head underneath the pillow wishing the pain would stop. Never in her life had her head hurt as bad as it did now, not even the one time she went out with Beth on her 21 birthday, and they had both gotten so drunk that they to call Sammy to come pick them up.
She felt the bed shift slightly as if someone was sitting on it next to her. She knew exactly who that someone was and she had no desire to look at his face.
“How are you feeling this morning, little one?” His voice shot through her head like a red hot poker.
“Leave me alone,” she mumbled from under the pillow. “Go away.”
He tried not to laugh, but didn’t succeed when he said, “You drank way more foa than you should have, little one. It is only meant to be consumed in small quantities. You drank enough of it to take out a full grown warrior. It is no surprise that you do not feel well. I will get you something that will help ease the pain, then you can go back to sleep. It is best for you to sleep off the effects of the foa.” He went into the bathroom and retrieved a small black bottle and a glass of water. Many times he had drank too much of the foa and had to take some of this nasty medicine, but it worked like a charm.
“Here we go. Sit up and take this.” He patted her back and when she did not move, he said in a sterner voice, “Come on and take this Emma. If you don’t take this, I will be forced to make you to take it. I don’t want to do that, but I will if I have to.” He waited for her to respond. A few seconds ticked by before she finally crawled out from under the pillow that provided her protection from the bright light and sat up.
“What is it?” she said as she squinted up at him as he poured some of the black liquid into a tiny cup.
“This is what we call hexano. It is a pain reliever and will help with your pounding headache that I’m positive that you are experiencing.” He held out the tiny cup and waited for her to take it. He watched as she sniffed the liquid and chuckled again at the face she made. “If you insist on drinking an entire bottle of foa at one time then you will pay a hefty price. Now drink up, I have some things I need to go out to work on, and I want to make sure that you are okay before I leave.”
She looked from him to the tiny cup filled with the foul smelling black liquid. Seeing no other alternative, she took a deep breath, pinched her nose, and then poured the think liquid down her throat. The liquid was very thick as it coursed down her throat, and had a flavor of black licorice which she hated.
“Oh my God, that stuff is horrible!” Her body heaved and a wave of shivers went down her spine. She stuck out her hand with the cup and waited for him to take it. When he reached to grab the cup, his fingers lightly brushed hers, sending another shiver down her spine. However this time, the shivers weren’t because she swallowed something nasty. She wasn’t quite sure what caused it.
“You will be able to sleep much more comfortably now, and when you wake up you will feel much better. Just don’t drink anymore foa while I am gone.”
“Don’t worry about that. I am never drinking that stuff again.” She lay back on the pillows and closed her eyes. She felt the covers being pulled up around her and it wasn’t long before she felt herself being pulled towards the refuge of sleep.
****
Now that Emma was alright and back to sleep, Brylon left the quarters that he shared with her now. He did not understand what he was feeling. When he took the small cup from her outstretched hand, he felt a feeling similar to electric shock go through his fingers. He looked into her eyes at the same time that he experienced this odd feeling and thought that she must have felt it too, because she looked as if she had been stung. Putting those thoughts aside he made his way to Engineering and went to work.
Brylon was working in one of the engineering labs when his communicator went off. He snatched it off his belt and spoke into it, “What.”
“What’s got you in an uproar?” Zeb was on the other end of the call.
Brylon shook his head, “Sorry about that Zeb. Just preoccupied, I guess. I have been working on these new visual guides and I am just about done with them. What’s up with you?” He continued to fiddle with the devices he was working on while he talked to Zeb.
“Is there any way you can slip away for a while? I need to speak to you in my quarters.”
He stopped and listened to his friend, “Sure, when do you want me to come over?”
“As soon as you can, it’s pretty important.”
“Ok, just let me put this stuff away and I’ll be right up.” He broke the connection with Zeb, and then locked the visual guides in a drawer. He left the lab and headed for Zeb’s quarters. What in the world did Zeb want that was so important that he had to meet his commander in his quarters?
Once he finally found out what Zeb wanted he was a bit excited. Zeb wanted to go down to his mate Avery’s home and get her belongings. He said it was a way to try and make his mate feel more comfortable and at ease with him. The more he thought about it, the more he liked the idea. He ran to the engine room to get his visual guides then went to meet Zeb and Avery in the electronportation room. They wouldn’t have much time to pull off the unauthorized adventure, but it sure the hell would be worth getting into trouble for, especially if helped Zeb’s mate accept Zeb.
Their plan went perfectly until Lars happened to show his face in the electronportation room. He tried to show off his might and make a move on Avery while Zeb wasn’t in the room, but Brylon wasn’t a
bout to let that happen. Lars had no idea what they were up to so when he wasn’t looking, Brylon was able to beam Zeb back up without Lars knowing what happened. Thankfully, Zeb took immediate care of the problem with Lars. After Lars left the room, he brought up Avery’s many belongings. Something struck him as odd when he could hear that there was a sound coming from somewhere in the center of the pile. Avery rushed over to the large mound of her belongings, and grabbed the container that was making the noise. Brylon leaned in to get a better look, but was greeted with a hiss and swipe of a sharp clawed paw. “Nice little animal thing. What did you call it again?” He questioned Avery.
Avery replied, “Books is a cat, a feline.” He watched as she stuck her finger inside the container to pet the animal.
Zeb didn’t seem too excited about the new creature, but at least he had gone and did something special for Avery, and now she seemed to be a bit happier. He had to do something special for Emma too, but what? It was going to take a lot to win her over, but if he started small hopefully he would achieve his goal.
“I know what I’ll do!” he said out loud. Avery and Zeb’s eyes shifted his way with curiosity.
“Would you care to inform us about what you know you will do?” Zeb was smirking at his longtime friend as he shook his head amused, as he loaded Avery’s belongings on the cart that they had brought to the electronportation room to make it easier to bring her things back to their quarters.
“I was just talking to myself about something I need to do. But, I will take care of it as soon as I finish helping here.” He helped Zeb to load the cart and started thinking about how he was going to do what he planned to do. He decided that, after he returned from Zeb’s quarters, he would go back to the electronportation room and beam himself down Emma’s home. While he was there, he would retrieve as many of her belongings that he could carry. It wasn’t impossible to run the transportation device alone. It just wasn’t the smartest thing to do in the case that something went wrong.
